Eucalyptus species trial - Year 5 - Firewood

Comparison of different species for fuelwood in dry temperate climate. Compared for growth, form, and survival.
Location is Rapaura, Blenheim, Marlborough, New Zealand. Approx 600mm rain/year. Many mild frosts in winter. Highest summer temps in mid 30s. Prolonged hot dry winds in summer.
Best potential so far: Obliqua, Ovata, Globulus, Bicostata, Glaucescens

[@jumpingjellyfishy]

In just a few years I'll be doing the same. Can not wait.

[@mattthesparky]

Hi those are some great looking trees you have there. I live over the hill in Tasman district and I am beginning the process of planting my property in carbon forest. I have A contractor coming later this month to spray out all the broom and barberry, and I am planning on going with E.Nitens. I see you have used some nitens on your property, was wondering if you could give me a bit of advice.
The contractor seems to think I will need to spray twice, once this month and once toward the end of next summer before planting the following winter but I was hoping to bring that down to just one spray and plant seedlings this autumn. Do you think E.Nitens would be able to outgrow regrowth of broom and barberry or should I take the contractors advice, spray twice and wait a year and a half from now to plant out? Also how long before planting out should I be germinating seeds?

[@tr33guy]

Hi I'm not sure why you'd need to spray twice, as long as you spray prior to planting and plant decent size healthy seedlings they should be able to beat the weeds. I also grow a few trees on the west coast where the gorse and blackberry are very fast growing weeds and I don't even spray I just manually cut gaps in the brush with chainsaw or machete. But over there I prefer to plant bigger seedlings in PB2s rather than root trainers, as they get a better head start on the weeds. You'd need to plant seeds now to plant out in autumn/winter, they need 6 months to get to a decent size. Tasman would be somewhere between West coast and Blenheim climate wise. In Blenheim grass is the worst weed, but it's so dry the weeds don't get huge. On the west coast gorse, bracken and blackberry can form a thicket over one growing season, root trainer stock can get overwhelmed.

[@mattthesparky]

@@tr33guy thanks so much for your reply. So if I got seeds away this spring in pb2s how tall do you think they would be by May?

[@LachlanKeown]

@@mattthesparky if you pump them up with nitrogen you could get them up to probably 70cm. Or if time/money/potting mix is not an issue use pb4 or 5s and you could get up to a metre really healthy bushy plants.

[@mirofexotic]

Hello, you have beautiful trees! I grow eucalyptus trees in the south of Russia (Krasnodar Territory), we have a climate here that is very similar to the climate of the central regions of Tasmania. I would like to ask you about the frost-resistant species of this tree. I want to introduce eucalyptus trees to the more northern part of our region, where temperatures in winter can fall below -20 degrees Celsius. Do you have any observations in this direction?

[@tr33guy]

Hi, the most cold resistant common eucalypts would be gunnii and pauciflora.